Credit and debit cards are in increasingly common usage for effecting electronic transactions. Particularly for in-store transactions a cardholder must produce their credit or debit card so that it may be scanned or read, and the payment can then be authorised.
Authorisation can involve inputting a personal identification number (PIN) into a merchant payment terminal, or producing a signature. For a signature to be verified that same signature typically appears on the back of the credit or debit card with which payment is to be made. This leads to a number of problems.
Firstly, a fraudulent user of the credit or debit card has the opportunity to practice replicating the signature such that a convincing reproduction can be produced when effecting an in-store transaction.
Secondly, the credit or debit card details are visible on the card. These details can be stolen, with or without stealing the card, and then used to make purchases online.
It is desired therefore that there be provided an alternative means for effecting transactions that avoids one or more of the abovementioned drawbacks of current systems, or at least provides a useful alternative.